Recent Updates

 New Historical Research & Documents

• Hiram's parents: Added Hiram's parents, focusing heavily on his father. Hiram's father—a large land owner of tracts of land under a several "Military" Surveys and grants.  I've so far been unable to uncover how he came to own this land precisely. I have added copies of these land records to the family gallery Google albums, as well as photos of the land when I visited in 2025.  

• Hiram Sparks Sr: Added documents to the Google albums showing Hiram's filings in Common Pleas Court. 

• Elias Sparks Land: In 2025, I visited Fayette County , Clinton County, and Greene County in an effort to understand more about location and jurisdiction of his lands. The county and township lines moved around. The Sparks Family were very close to the intersection of Greene Co and Clinton Co. Elias land was the actual boundary, and also the boundary between Sabina and Bowersville. After studying at length the on the surface what appeared to be "conflicts" of data where the places of birth and so on are recorded on various Census records, etc, I've since concluded that the cause of the conflicts were these shifting boundary lines. City name, township name, even the county -- there are different places given for all of the children of Elias Sparks for their birthplace, and where the family was living in 1840s-1860s. Jefferson Twp, Jasper Twp, Concord Twp, all were formed in the 1840s-1860 and moved around before finally settling. Even today in Google maps, it seems confused about what county we were in by using the GPS, much less the city or the township. Google Maps provided a Sabina , Clinton Co, location, which differs with other sources and references. Despite of the different place names given, it seems that all of Elias's children were all born there on that farm except the oldest Margaret. Attached photos of the area and old maps, and a description of the location from the memory of someone who was there.

  
  
  

• Enhanced Profile on MacFamily Tree(s): Expanded the profile for Hiram Lepley Sr, with new sources, images, newspaper clips, and life events.

Website & Reporting Updates

• Charts & Reports: Generated charts and reports (including Sparks Descendant Poster, Hook Descendant Poster,  Cemeteries, Occupations, Education, Veterans, and Churches) with the latest research.

• Homepage Redesigns: Updated sparks.consultchris.us & hook.consultchris.us to improve the visibility of the reports and blog. The directory of family galleries has also been expanded to include several more families.

Important Changes to MacFamilyTree Organization The Hook Sparks MacFamilyTree has been dramatically expanded. However, due to high hosting costs and a 2GB size limit per file on the cheaper option MacFamilyTree website, I restructured how the tree is organized.

• Shared Base Data: All of the new trees contain the exact same base data for Hiram & Elma Sparks (Hook), and their Direct ancestors.

• The Split: The tree is now divided between Sparks surnames and Hook surnames.  The separate trees are:

  • Hill Sparks: Hiram & Amanda Sparks (Hill)

  • Hook Cox: Philip & Julia Hook (Cox)

  • Navigation Video: If you are viewing one tree (e.g., Hook) and want to jump to someone in another tree (e.g., Sparks), the home menu contains links to each of the MacFamilyTree files for this family group. I have included a short, silent screen-recording video demonstrating exactly how to navigate between these files. Note I'm using an alternate family for this sample, however the appearance and menus function precisely the same.